We really have no reason to be winning this health care debate. The Democrats were swept into the Oval Office with a sweeping mandate, they have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and a commanding majority in the House, and, at the beginning of the year, they were popular in the eyes of the public and had a plethora of political capital to spend.
After spending some of it on the ill-conceived stimulus package, health care was next. One year ago at this time, I would have said: it’s done for. The public wants reform, they want a “public option,” they have their votes, they’re going to get it. I was very wrong. I overestimated this president.
To this day, we have no idea what the president wanted in the bill. He voted present. Public option? Co-ops? Medicare expansions? Individual mandates? “He couldn’t choose between yes…or no. It was too tough!” — He doesn’t know how to corral a group of testy senators and Congressmen together. He’s never worked in an executive position, and he’d only gotten a few short years (most of them spent on the campaign trail) to see the inner workings of the Senate.
Obama’s political life has been a series of things magically falling into place — in 2004, Jack Ryan imploded, and in 2008, the sheer force of his speeches carried him to victory over an arrogant Hillary Clinton campaign. In the fall, the economy’s collapse locked in a victory for him that otherwise looked fairly shaky. But he doesn’t know how to be an executive. He’s never done anything like this before.
So he’s succeeded at pissing off the right, the progressives, and independents. Straggling moderates, blacks, and mainstream liberals are still with him, but that’s an awfully weak political coalition: by their nature, they don’t make much noise and aren’t especially motivated to vote in off-years.
Nobody with any political influence is saying anything other than “Kill this Bill!” And because he has successfully pissed everyone with convictions off, 2010 is shaping up to be very, very bad for Obama. And he’s got no one but himself to blame.
We ought to very, very thankful for the fact that we have such a neophyte to deal with — and an arrogant one, at that. We’re beating him, against all odds, on all fronts — health care, global warming, spending, Guantanamo — in the eyes of the public.
What will he do now? A second stimulus? A jobs program? More cap-and-trade? Immigration? What a mess. 2010, here we come.
December 18th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
This proves that there is a God Almighty after all !
December 18th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Obama needs a moderate softball that won’t tick off the left wing of his party and he can tailor to curry Republican votes.
Since the economy is bad, that should probably be a better, private-sector targeted stimulus. Immigration reform would also be a good one to tackle because of its ability to divide the Republican Party, but not in the current economic climate.
He doesn’t really seem to get the art of the deal, though, so he’s just bleeding moderates who after last year he should be able to count on to go all the way for him. He doesn’t know how to reconcile various interests into one driving force.
December 18th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
1. I don’t know, given that the messiah has proven to be less than capable.
December 18th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
MPC,
I think Obama would be smart to push some anti-Wall Street/financial regulation policy. Even though such a policy would be popular, the problem for Obama is that it isn’t sexy and the media wouldn’t cover it with anywhere near the intensity as it has healthcare/Afghanistan.
December 18th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Hamaca, Obama is not the Messiah, he is nothing but a false prophet in a sheep ` s clothings.
December 18th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
E-Verify–IS–the answer to illegal immigration because it WORKS! It–MUST–and should be permanent, with sufficient penalties for violations. Blogger’s have demonstrated to me that if employers explain to old and new hires, that the US government is implementing audits of companies throughout America. That any time ICE agents might appear without any warning and run an audit on any business at any time. That their 1-9′s will be submitted to ICE, including photocopies of documents that–YOU–gave to us at the beginning of employment. ICE seems to be the magic word that means detention and deportation for anybody working under assumed Social Security cards, ID and other ill-gotten documentation if caught. Once alerted to this implication, those in this country illegally will be absent from work the next day. E-VERIFY IS THE ANSWER TO THE DESPERATE JOBLESS AMERICAN WORKERS AND MUST BE MADE PERMANENT. AN E-VERIFY LAW IS WHAT WE NEED, NOT ANOTHER OBNOXIOUS AMNESTY, THAT WAS NEVER ENFORCED AS IN 1986. DON’T CONDEMN US LABOR AGAIN , ENFORCE THE 1986 LAW.
We all know the astronomical costs attributed to the illegal immigration invasion over many decades in education, health care and incarceration. So get on the phone and insist as a voter for your lawmaker to vote for
THE SAVE ACT (H.R. 3308) and be relentless.One main enforcement tools is E-Verify, that discloses and removes illegal workers from job locations. The capitol switchboard number is 202-224-3121. Also bombard the House-Senate policy makers with 28 cent postcards, to stop the open border organizations from engineering another Comprehensive Immigration reform or AMNESTY. GOOGLE and investigate the terrible consequences of illegal immigrants and families, demanding rights in the–SANCTUARY STATE OF CALIFORNIA. On the brink of bankruptcy, overcrowded schools where English is a second language, and Liberal-Marxist-Extremist politicians in Sacramento, spending the peoples money to subsidize the low incomes of millions illegal foreign nationals. EXPECT A FINANCIAL cataclysmic nightmare, if AMNESTY passes.
Bad as it is now millions more will enter America without permission causing even more chaos. Honest legal immigrants will be dumbfounded, when they learn illegal aliens will pay only $500 dollars to get legitimate status, While those people who went through the government inspection process and attorney filling fees for $2,500 dollars or more waiting for years to be accepted.
Tell them to amend the 1986 Immigration Reform Act and not another travesty that was a total disaster to taxpayers. Virginia Abernethy, Ph.D., former chief statistician for the Bureau of the Census said in September 2006 at a speech in Washington DC, that there has been a intentional undercount going on, so that the claimed figure over the 305-million population did not happen in 2005 but instead as early as– 2001. Those who believe in America’s survival, without OVERPOPULATION as stated by the US Census bureau better read the facts, not the lies at NUMBERSUSA. Those who want details of corruption in WASHINGTON and state government go to JUDICIAL WATCH. For Overpopulation statistics, should go to CAPSWEB. Other sites of interest on Immigration enforcement is ALIPAC and AMERICAN PATROL
Anybody can copy and paste. We need to warn the general public?
December 18th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Obama’s incompetence has been a surprise, though the clues were there — the lack of experience, the record of voting ‘present’ on any tough decision, the ill-disguised arrogance.
I thought he’d be a lousy president, but not as bad as he has been. I think perhaps I (and many others) looked at a well-run, well-planned campaign and gave Obama too much credit for it.
December 18th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
7 Bob,
I committed the same mistake as you and extrapolated Obama’s well-run campaign to a window into his management competence.
December 18th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
We have indeed been lucky with Obama.
If he had been even averagely competent as POTUS, this country would be looking far different.
I suspect the Obama impact will continue for many more years. The Democrats will be tagged with this mistake into several election cycles. In a way, it is even making the worst Bush years seem comparatively good.
December 18th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
He had the lack of experience, and the wrong perspective, and this is only the first year, James Buchanan, might have to improve his ranking when this is all over. Not that there will be another
Civil WAr, but he will stumble into a major crisis.
December 18th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
What was so well-run about it? He could barely beat a stiff like McCain with zero media scrutiny until the economy crashed through the floor.
It only looked good because he didn’t have to do anything except make bland speaches and spend a kajillion dollars. The only thing he actually did strategically to win election was show up for the caucus states, unlike Hilary. And that’s more on Hilary than a positive for Obama.
December 18th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
“What was so well-run about it?”
I thought Hillary would take the nomination in a walk, and so did just about everybody else that I know of. It took great strategy, well-executed, to defeat her.
December 19th, 2009 at 12:02 am
No they didn’t, the media treated her like a REpublican, and even though she won virtually every primary after Iowa, he won the nomination.
December 19th, 2009 at 12:17 am
“He could barely beat … McCain”
I’d say 365-173 is a bit more than barely. His popular vote percentage was the highest any Democrat has received in more than 40 years (since LBJ in ’64). In fact, the only Democrats to receive a bigger share of popular vote than Obama since the Civil War are FDR and LBJ.
December 19th, 2009 at 12:26 am
14:
Please go back and read my statement in full.
December 19th, 2009 at 12:36 am
“even though she won virtually every primary after Iowa, he won the nomination.’
Here are some primaries Obama won after Iowa: South Carolina, Illinois, Georgia, Missouri, Alabama, Connecticut, Utah, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Oregon.
More importantly, he took most of the caucuses, and that was part of the cleverness of his strategy, and demonstrates the excellence of his organization.
December 19th, 2009 at 12:46 am
No, it demonstrates the stupidity of Clinton’s strategy. She ceded the caucuses to Obama and it cost her the nomination.
How does that reflect positively on Obama?
December 19th, 2009 at 1:05 am
Because he (or his advisors)understood that winning caucuses was his best route to victory. He had hard-core, dedicated followers — the kind of people who will turn out for caucuses and sit for hours in a meeting hall. He exploited that advantage.
December 19th, 2009 at 1:21 am
I really don’t see why we’re arguing Obama’s campaign was anything short of brilliant on a tactical level. He did benefit from a considerable tailwind from the media and GWB’s unpopularity, but he still toppled a candidate who looked completely unstopple in the primaries. And as for McCain, he made one huge mistake (how he dealt with the fiscal meltdown), and some smaller ones, but on the whole did much better with the hand he was dealt than party regulars are currently giving him credit for. And his approval rating at the time of his defeat was almost 60% — just one point less than Obama.
December 19th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Obama’s mistake was in not choosing WHERE to govern. He had two options; (1) to govern from the Left, in which case he should have given the Left all the social issue treats that he promised during the campaign. He should have gone for broke on Health Care and demanded a Public Option from Day One; or, (2) He could have governed from the Center by b-slapping the radical Left and cozying-up to independents. IMO he wanted to do option #2, but the problem was that the radical Left House pulled him too far to the Left. In other words, he tried to please everyone and wound up pleasing nobody.
December 19th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Yes BHO is weak and inexperienced. Republicans should look at the Tea-Party Movement and sober up. If any party is in peril it is the Republicans. Most folks agree BHO is a disaster and many agree that Bush was as well. We need change, change from the sell out politicans who are paid for their votes.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:03 am
You are all diseased. The persistence and predictability of your stupidity is simply baffling. You’re all suffering from some sort of self-denial disorder, a form of collective amnesia. In power for years, in the executive and legislative branches, your party screws all but everything up–fighting two wars, one unnecessary, while refusing to factor the costs into the budget (which Obama has now corrected); cutting taxes during wartime (which was unprecedented in American history, and probably unnecessary because we were running a surplus from the Clinton years and were rammed through by the reconciliation process; failing to see and plan for the economic crisis (granted, not all Bush’s fault) and then, responsibly, passing TARP, whose moderate success is now being spun as a failure, and laid at the feet of Obama, who, of course, was not responsible for it in the first place; you passed Medicare Part D, the largest expansion of federal social policy since Medicare in 1965, and DID NOT PAY FOR IT, and now you flatly oppose any proposals to improve healthcare; you said deficits don’t matter, and now that a Democrat is in power, you wail about deficits, but it’s the teapot calling the kettle black; you glibly dismiss Obama as weak and apologetic for banning torture and closing GITMO, as he tries to repair the deep damage your foriegn policy and demeanor caused to our image on the world stage; you disingenously cry NIMBY, when you know full well there is no security threat holding terrorists in supermax prisons on US soil; you brand Obama as a radical leftist, just as he alienates the left wing of his party. And on, and on, and on. You brand Obama arrogant, but fail to see the haughter and smugness in yourselves. You were soundly beaten in 2008 for reasons foundational to your approach to governance in recent years, and rather than engage in a protracted process of introspection, you brand our leader the antichrist and look forward to the next election. Yet you offer no constructive proposals for the problems we face. You make our country the laughing stock of the other developed nations by sowing doubt about climate change.
Your party has become a freakshow, a travelling circus, a fickle band of opportunists, exploiting the fragile emotions of our people in a time of great upheaval, and rather than support a new president doing his best to put our country back on the straight and narrow, you blindly pursue your own narrow self-interest, your dumb pursuit of power, and blather on about your half-held moral values. I pray you will be beaten again in 2010, and that this re-thumping gets you dullards to stop and think for once. Pathetic hucksters.
December 19th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Dave S. – I’m glad someone finally said what needed to be said to these bozos. But DAMN you said it well!
December 19th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Dave S,
Ignoring the army of straw men you vanquished in #22 (who here is really calling Obama the antichrist?), I will say that many of us opposed Medicare Part D and almost all of us are ticked by the profligate spending and deficits of the Bush years.
That said, ObamaCare isn’t funded either. The silly claim that it “reduces” the deficit over the first 10 years is do SOLEY to the fact that it is 10 years of taxes, and only 6 years of benefits. It was rigged that way because the cynical Democrats know the CBO scores on a 10 year horizon, and the Democrats think the American people are too stupid to see past the headline. After those magic 10 years, ObamaCare will run massive deficits. As bad as the Republicans were in power, the Democrats have gone completely insane. Our government is speeding towards insolvency because of the entitlement programs we have now. The Democrats figure this is a perfect time to create a new one.
Fortunately, the American people have seen through the Democrats’ pack of lies. By 3-1 or 4-1 margins, they know that ObamaCare will increase the deficit, raise their taxes, increase their premiums, and NOT improve their quality of care.
December 19th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Wow. Great rant.
December 19th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Dave S,
“exploiting the fragile emotions of our people in a time of great upheaval”
LOL!!!! Obama is the KING of that! “The economy will collapse this weekend if we don’t shovel money to the unions and ACORN NOW!!! No time to debate!!!” “The Earth will melt any day now if we don’t pass Cap and Tax NOW!!! No time to debate!!!” “We will all die horrible, uninsured deaths and the government will be bankrupt if we don’t pass ObamaCare by
summer recess….Thanksgiving…. Chrsitmas!!!! There is no time to debate!!!!”December 19th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Steve S,
” you glibly dismiss Obama as weak and apologetic for banning torture and closing GITMO”
No, we dismiss Obama as weak and apologetic because he grovels before foreign dictators, sits silently while Chavez and Castro run down America to his face, bows before foreign monarchs and heads of state, and trashes America’s history for the adulation of foreign crowds.
December 19th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
#26: No time to debate, and no time to actually READ what we are voting on to make sure that, you know, it actually does what its supposed to do.
Kudos for taking a machette to that straw man over there. I’d also add that the only person who said “deficits don’t matter” was Dick Cheney and he was wrong. The Tea Party protesters in ’09 included a large chunk of voters who punished the GOP for Cheney’s attitude by staying home or even voting for Obama despite the fact that the GOP repudiated that view by nominating one of its biggest deficit hawks in the Senate as its nominee in ’08, and who were rewarded for their open mindedness towards Obama with a claim that they were motivated by “racism, straight up” the moment they picked up a protest sign.
Not only that, it is one thing to say “deficits don’t matter” when they are running in the 200 billion to 500 billion range in a country with a GDP of the US; it is another thing altogether to have the same attitude when deficits are running between 1 to 2 TRILLION dollars. The former view is naive and counterproductive, the latter is grossly destructive and dangerous to our long term fiscal health. When Obama was in the Senate he railed against deficits 1/5 the size he is currently administering, yet he doesn’t get charged with being a hypocrite. And Obama walks on water, so what’s his excuse?
January 8th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
[...] platform and the conservative platform should be one and the same. As Alex Knepper put it, “The Gift of Obama” has helped his opponents immensely, even though many of them have offered few constructive [...]
January 20th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
[...] one or two Senate seats to the Democrats in 2010. Of course, if President Obama keeps using his waning political capital to help Democrats in tough elections, perhaps Republicans will be fortunate enough to have another [...]